Over the last few days a western Cook County Walmart store hoisted a banner celebrating the end of the Cook County soda tax. The Walmart sign proves what a terrible idea this tax really was.

Months ago the county board for Cook, the county that boasts Chicago as its hub, levied a one cent per ounce tax on soda pop and sugared drinks. The tax was never popular. Even when it was passing the people were in the process of rising up against it and eventually the pressure got so bad that the board capitulated and announced that December 1 would mark the end of the tax.

The tax was set at a penny per ounce, so that was a hike of 20 cents per bottles of pop in a store cooler, 50 cents on a Double Gulp at 7-Eleven, and $2.88 on a case of pop at any Cook County store.

The tax was supposed to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for the county budget over the next few years, but it was revealed that the county expected $18 million in new tax revenue in the first month of the tax. But all officials really got was $300,000 because people either bought their pop in another county or stopped buying pop altogether. So, when ever you hear a government entity proclaim how much they will make in taxes with a new tax, know this is always a lie.

Think I am just blowing steam? We go back to the Walmart mentioned above. This Walmart in Streamwood, a far western city in Cook County, had posted this sign in the week leading up to the end of the tax:

Folks, let’s realize what this sign really means. It means that Walmart felt it was worth the expenditure of a few hundred dollars to create this banner to alert customers that they can buy soda again without the odious tax.

But, this banner also tells us that Walmart must have been losing thousands of dollars in sales every week for them to feel paying to create this banner was worth their effort. This banner speaks to the oppressive force of taxes.

Clearly Walmart was losing tons of income because of this tax or the passing of the levy would have been unremarkable and certainly not worth putting up a banner to alert customers that it had ended. And with the paltry amount of money brought in compared to what the county projected, we can see that this Walmart is but one of thousands of stores that likely lost millions in sales over this period.

Taxes kill commerce and NEVER raise the amount lying politicians project they will.

As the state of Illinois edges near becoming the first U.S. state to ever be rated junk bond status, the Democrat-controlled legislature of the bankrupt state of Illinois has just voted to slam its citizens with a hefty 32 percent hike in state income taxes.

After a series of delays as a legislature obviously embarrassed by its own actions dithered, the State House finally approved of the Senate’s override of the governor’s veto with a 71-42 vote burdening the state with a massive tax hike. It was a vote that saw ten of the state’s Republican contingent abandon Republican values and join the Democrats in approval.

Thursday’s vote permanently increases the state’s personal income tax rate from 3.75 percent to 4.95 percent. It also raises the burden on businesses raising the rate from 5.9 percent to seven. It all amounts to a 32 percent hike for the average Illinoisan and a $5 billion tax hike overall.

The new tax hike all the more galling because Illinois already has the highest property taxes in the nation, a fact that often forces retirees out of their homes and fleeing to other states. This is also a situation not lost on the state’s African American population, either. Illinois is witnessing a growing number of its African American citizens moving out of the state with Chicago and Cook County residents leaving at the fastest rate.

On Thursday, Illinois Democrat House leader Michael Madigan only needed three Republicans to jump ship and vote his way, but not only did he get a whopping ten to do so, but he also got five others who didn’t even bother to vote. An additional five joined him in the early rounds of deliberations, so Democrat Madigan knew he had the Republican votes going into the matter.

Thursday’s vote came after the House and the Senate passed the gigantic tax package early this week only to have Illinois’ Republican Governor, Bruce Rauner, veto the bill. Despite the veto, on Wednesday the Senate voted to override the governor’s pen sending the final vote back to the House. But all day Wednesday Speaker Madigan could not get enough lawmakers together to make a quorum.

The task of overriding the veto was put off until Thursday, but even then the vote was temporarily halted when police put the capitol building into lockdown after discovering a mysterious white powder in the governor’s Capitol office. The shutdown only lasted a short time, and, in due course, the vote was back on.

Finally, by early evening on Thursday, the deed was done, and the tax hike was approved. The state that is losing more citizens to out-migration than any other state, one with the lowest number of new jobs being created, and one losing business in droves just saddled its people with even higher taxes and with no budget reforms made and no cuts in spending implemented, to boot.

Indeed, there was even more spending included in the disastrous budget deal. Some of the earmarks added into the deal include $12.7 million for the construction of a new classroom building at the College of Lake County, $10 million for the construction of a city center campus at Joliet Junior College, $15 million for a Chicago Metra station, plus much more.

The one thing the bill lacks is any cuts in spending or any budget reforms. This inadequacy does nothing to stave off the threat to the state’s bond rating which is already one of the poorest in the nation.

As June began S&P and Moody’s both downgraded Illinois to near junk, the lowest ever for a U.S. State.

But even with the new budget finally approved, it isn’t likely that junk bond status can be avoided. Moody’s Investor Service warned on Wednesday that it will probably end up awarding Illinois with junk status despite the budget approval.

In fact, Moody’s said its coming downgrade would be a result of what the state’s Democrats are doing. In its July 5 statement, Moody’s said:

The decision to place the state’s ratings under review for Moody’s downgrade incorporates our expectation that the legislature will implement revenue increases, overriding the governor’s vetoes. The review will provide a limited amount of time for the Illinois General Assembly to finish voting on the measures, and for assessment of the plan’s credit implications. The review process will also address the likelihood of further deterioration in Illinois’ most pressing credit challenges: its severely underfunded pensions and a backlog of unpaid bills, which has doubled during the past year.

Moody’s also slammed the Democrats’ contention that a higher income tax intake will allow Illinois lawmakers to borrow even more money to spend on pet projects and fat union kickbacks.

Meanwhile, Illinois Republicans have a large number of their own to thank for this latest outrage inflicted on the state’s beleaguered citizens.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the ten Republicans who left Republican principles behind to join the Democrats were as follows:

Following is an open letter to Republicans in Illinois penned by Demetra DeMonte, Co-Chair Trump Illinois, Republican National Committeewoman for Illinois, and RNC Secretary 2011-2015.

Dear Fellow RNC members,

I believe it is now time for us to speak up about the swirling news over the last 24 hours.

First and foremost, Donald J Trump is not going to step down – nor should he. He is our lawfully elected nominee.

Yes – Donald Trump used some very inappropriate language. We can all agree on that. I certainly do not condone it. But one thing is sure – he is not the first – nor will he be the last to utter foul language in the privacy of their home or in their locker rooms.

What would be so amusing, if it wasn’t so disingenuous, is that Hillary is appalled and disgusted at Trump’s language. Right… just like Captain Renault, the character from Casablanca, is “shocked, shocked” that there is gambling going on in Rick’s Café, while at the same time he is accepting his ill-gotten gambling winnings!

Hillary, the consummate hypocrite, who while First Lady, barraged her own Secret Service detail with unspeakably foul language! The very same men who put their lives on the line for hers! Such hypocrisy!

But here is the real question – what I believe we should really focus on: When choosing a President what is more important – Words or Deeds?

Mr. Trump may be guilty of uttering foul language – but Hillary is guilty of committing foul deeds – deeds, if she were anyone else, would have resulted in prison time.

She has deleted thousands of documents which she knew was illegal;

She had an unsecured server in her home that jeopardized America ’s security and more than likely resulted in the deaths of some of our people;

She refused multiple cries for help from our ambassador that resulted in his murder, along with 3 brave Americans!

Hillary laughed when she got off a rapist of a 12 year old girl – while knowing all along her client was guilty of rape! That is on tape, too – why doesn’t the media play that audio?

And now it comes out that Hillary DREAMS of open borders and open trade. Oh, really? That’s not what she’s been preaching! No wonder she didn’t want to release her speeches to her Wall Street backers – the same people who made her rich by taking millions of dollars from them.

Our choice is simple.

Although Donald Trump is not a perfect man – who among us is? – he is our lawfully elected nominee and if we all stand behind him NOW – he will win November 8th.

I ask all of my fellow RNC members to please stay the course, stay with Donald Trump, and let us do all that we can to elect him on November 8th. There is too much at stake – including, most of all, the Supreme Court.

A new radio spot being played on Chicago talk radio by a purportedly “Christian” environmentalist group is using a pack of lies about Christianity and the environment in order to push left-wing Senator Mark Kirk into signing onto the President’s global warming policies.

A faux Christian group calling itself the “Evangelical Environmental Network” launched its radio blitz on November 12 with the sales line “It’s up to us to care for the earth that God left us.” But the ad is quite a pack of lies especially considering that it is coming from a group of so-called Christians.

First of all the ad misleads by presenting soundbytes from “Christian voices” urging Kirk to vote “yes” on Obama’s pro-global warming initiatives. The presentation to the radio audience listening to the ad makes it seem as if these “regular people” were callers to a radio show–as that is the timber of the audio, the sound is mixed in such a way as to leave the impression you are listening to a talk show caller as opposed to hearing someone speaking directly into a microphone like a narrator might.

With the announcer sonorously starting the ad saying “The voices of Christians,” here is what these faux “regular people” say on the ad:

WOMAN #1: I am a person of faith and I’m asking Sen. Kirk to protect the environment.

WOMAN #2: I would like my children and grandchildren to be able to breathe clean air and drink fresh, clean water.

MAN #1: Without all of the smog and pollution.

WOMAN #3: It’s up to us to care for the earth that God left us.

WOMAN #4: To protect what God created, it’s in our hands, and right now Sen. Kirk, it’s in your hands.

So, let’s review what we have thus far… we have a group of so-called Christians lying to its audience by pretending that listeners are hearing “the voices of Christians” when it is plain they are hearing actors reading lines with a sound mix making it appear as if these are people talking over a telephone.

Right off the bat, this ad is a lie and that is before we even get to Christian ideals and policy.

Then the ad gets to its real message, a push for Obama’s outrageous EPA “clean energy” powergrab.

Here is the rest of the ad:

Climate change is real–it endangers the health of our children… worsens poverty throughout the world… and threatens our economy. But the Clean Power Plan of the Environmental Protection Agency will help create a healthier, more prosperous future.

Call Sen. Mark Kirk and tell him as pro-life Christians we believe reducing pollution is one of the greatest moral opportunities of our time.

Tell Sen. Kirk to support the EPA’s Clean Power Plan.

First of all, global warming (i.e. “climate change) is not “real.” It is an assumption based on computer models that many say are deeply flawed. It is theory, not fact.

So, there is yet another lie disgorged by these so-called Christians.

Next, to say it “endangers children” is simple hyperbole–so yet another lie–and claiming it engenders “poverty” is also a lie.

But they are right that climate change endangers our economy. Following their wishes to vote yes on Obama’s EPA powergrab will certainly endanger our economy… not that these faux Christians mean it that way. So, yep, they essentially belched out yet another lie.

Then we get the pap that Obama’s “Clean Power Plan” will “create a healthier, more prosperous future.” This is another lie.

What it will cost America up to $8.4 BILLION to implement Obama’s EPA powergrab and that is just for starters. That isn’t to even mention the fact that Obama’s policy will cause a hike in energy costs in at least 47 of our 50 states.

Finally comes the faux Christian group’s “Christian” ideal in the ad: “Call Sen. Mark Kirk and tell him as pro-life Christians we believe reducing pollution is one of the greatest moral opportunities of our time.”

Firstly, “pollution” has nothing at all to do with being “pro-life.” Yes, they’ve blurted out another lie.

Secondly, there isn’t a thing in the Bible that says purposefully destroying modernity and a nation’s economy to implement draconian global warming rules is a Christian principle. I am pretty sure the word “pollution” isn’t anywhere in the Bible. Not even the new versions.

About all you can say is that the Bible urges man to be a good steward of the land, but it doesn’t really lay out a full plan on the idea. There is no way to firmly claim that today’s radical environmentalism is a “Christian” ideal. Christianity does feature common sense ideas about being a good steward for our environment, but that is about all.

So, in the end, what we have is a radio ad filled with lies, half truths, and base assumptions from a group that claims to be good, evangelical Christians.

For shame, Evangelical Environmental Network. You couldn’t be worse representatives of Christianity.

But, let’s face it. It isn’t likely that the single most left-wing Republican in the U.S. Senatey would even need your urging to side with Obama. He does it nearly every day.

As the Illinois legislature continues to meet in Springfield with no state budget on the books, there are some who want to implement a new tax on satellite television customers. This is a discriminatory tax that’s perpetually suggested. The bottom line is that the cable industry wants to impose a satellite tax to make it less attractive for consumers.

The idea proponents are floating is to place a new 5 percent tax on every subscriber’s bill for no other reason than to suppress the satellite industry’s efforts to compete with cable.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle see this tax increase for what it is and have repeatedly rejected it. Since 2009, the cable industry has tried to pass satellite tax bills 53 times in 28 states – and state legislatures across the country have debated and rejected these new consumer taxes time and again. The reason is simple: satellite taxes discriminate against consumers who chose a wireless alternative to cable for their television.

Cable companies in Illinois pay rent – known as a “franchise fee” – to cities and towns for digging up public roads and for hanging wires. The cable industry somehow thinks satellite consumers should pay a tax simply for providing a competing service.

But satellite does not use buried wires and publicly-owned space to deliver its services. It relies on orbiting satellites to deliver video to customers – a far more efficient and less intrusive business model. Asking satellite customers to pay a new tax for property they don’t use is like asking airline passengers to pay for railroad tracks.

The reality is the satellite industry utilizes innovative technology and customers are choosing the programming satellite provides. As a result, cable is asking Illinois lawmakers to subject satellite TV subscribers to a tax to offset their losses.

Satellite is the leader in TV innovation. It provides more sports content, which helps attract customers to bars, restaurants and gaming institutions across the state – a revenue creator for local businesses and the businesses which serve them. Satellite provides more than twice as much foreign language programming compared to cable, critical to a diverse state like Illinois. And, satellite television is often the only choice for consumers and businesses in rural parts of the state as cable doesn’t stretch into all those areas.

The satellite industry, their valued customers and various businesses adversely impacted by this bill were able to defeat it three years in a row. If this feels like a rerun, it is. Those who will be most impacted by this satellite tax are banding together to oppose it again.

A new satellite tax is a tax on choice, a tax on competition, a tax on innovation and a tax on you.

We believe our leaders in Springfield should stop this bill in its tracks once and for all.

Lisa Volpe McCabe is the senior director of public policy for the Satellite Broadcasting & Communications Association. SBCA provides industry advocacy for consumer access to the best in satellite delivered services and assurance of its availability at a fair price.

In Illinois we have a complicit, left-wing media establishment that will never write a bad story about Democrats. This deal with 8th District Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth–a candidate for the US Senate, no less–is a perfect example. Duckworth is being accused of punishing two whistleblowers who were trying to uncover Duckworth’s massive mismanagement when she was at the VA and yet the media is practically silent on the story.

Durckworth is now being sued by two whistleblowers who came forward to reveal her complete mismanagement of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs. They are suing because when they tried to bring this info forward, Duckworth retaliated against them and punished them for shining a light on the mismanagement.

Duckworth is currently selling herself as an ideal candidate for the US Senate and will run against the weak spinned Republican Mark Kirk in 2016. One of her claims to fame is her tenure at the Illinois VA where she served as Director Of The Illinois Dept. Of Veterans Affairs between December 15, 2006 and February 6, 2009.

“I Have Been A Very Effective Administrator… I’m Proud Of The Work That I Did At The State Of Illinois Department Of Veteran’s Affairs,” she said on WFLD in April.

In the suit, employees Christine Butler and Denise Goins say they ran into trouble at their jobs after complaining about the facility’s acting chief, Patria Simms.

Butler said Duckworth fired her during a visit to the Anna facility, saying she had been “insubordinate.” The termination was reversed four days later and she was placed on paid leave.

On the same day Butler was fired, Duckworth is alleged to have met with Goins, who said she had been given negative evaluations after reporting what she believed were breaches of state rules by Simms.

During the meeting, Duckworth referred to Butler’s termination and “intentionally sought to prevent Goins from raising any further complaints, stating, `If you do your job and keep your mouth shut and concentrate on job duties, you will keep your job,'” the lawsuit notes.

Goins “reasonably believed that this statement violated her right to report misconduct as a whistleblower” under state law.

And this is the mess that Duckworth made when she ran the VA. Yet, where are the Illinois media outlets on this story?

If this were a sitting Republican congressperson and candidate for US Senate this story would be about all the Illinois left-wing media could talk about.

Remember how they destroyed Jack Ryan? Remember how they destroyed Aaron Schock? And neither of them were nearly as corrupt as Duckworth. Yet we get silence from the media.

Last month I noted that the Illinois state legislature is still pushing yet another tax to bedevil its already over taxed citizenry with the plan to push a tax on satellite TV providers. That plan has not abated.Unfortunately, it is just another example of Illinois burdening it citizens because of the failure of the politicians.

Recently Illinois State Representative Art Turner (D-09) floated the idea of in 2012, but was never signed into law.

At that time, state Sen. Dale Righter correctly noted that the idea was just a stealth tax increase on consumers. “They’re going to pass it right on” to satellite customers, he said.

The failure in 2012 didn’t end the attempts to make TV viewing more expensive in the Land of Lincoln.

A group named Stop the TV Tax notes that a tax such as this has already been rejected in 23 states. The group goes on to say that the tax “unfairly punish families living in rural and lower income parts of the country where only satellite TV chooses to go, as well as the many families who depend on foreign language programming offered only by satellite TV.”

Little has changed with this 2015 proposal. State Rep. Terri Bryant, (R-Murphysboro) calls the tax “unfair” for that reason–that many rural customers have no other choice but to subscribe to satellite.

“You can’t just tax people who have no other option,” Bryant said earlier this year. “We are taxed to death and a new tax that doesn’t give value to anything tangible, I would not be willing to support.”

“Imagine paying a higher tax rate,” Rasmussen says, “if you received your salary via direct deposit instead of a check. Or paying taxes on chocolate ice cream but not vanilla. The same thing goes with TV service: Consumers shouldn’t have to pay higher taxes just because they use satellite instead of cable, or vice versa.”

Rasmussen also points out that with the recent election of the state’s first Republican governor for years, “Illinois didn’t vote for tax hikes.” She concluded saying, “politicians have no mandate to engage in more tax-hiking nonsense.”

The move for school choice is not only growing in Illinois in general but in Chicago in particular as politicians and parents both see the downward spiral of the public education system picking up speed.

With the costs of public education soaring but neither the rates of graduation nor proficiency growing accordingly, parents are desperate to find a way for their children to gain a better education.

The state is pumping millions upon millions into the bottomless pit of education and taxes are edging higher every year to support the spending habit. As an example, Illinois school district U46 (west of Chicago in the Elgin area) has $600 million in bond debt and this is just one of the nearly 700 school districts in Illinois.

So, as the system founders, many experiments have blossomed. We all know that charter schools have grown rapidly in the Chicago area, but there are other schools such as Leo Catholic High School in Chicago’s Auburn Gresham neighborhood that are serving as perfect examples of school choice. Leo is a prime example of a private high school that is a wildly successful example of education at its finest.

The school is not fully supported financially by the city’s Catholic system but has since 1926 served students as an independent high school operating in what is now one of the city’s most depressed neighborhoods. The school started back when Auburn Gresham was a heavily Irish-Catholic part of the city but now serves an entirely African American student body. (Edit to note: The Archdiocese of Chicago does support Leo and has provided over $2M in direct, financial operating support for the school between 2009 and 2015, but doesn’t pay all the school’s expenses as it does the schools it has direct control over.)

The school has been such a success that for the last six years 100% of its students have been accepted into a college or university and 96 percent have gone on to pursue higher education.

Leo is a great example of school choice, but not the only one helping Illinois students to a better education.

Of course, charter schools have brought heated debate all across the city as entrenched union operatives oppose them while students and parents scramble to apply and be accepted to the charter school of their choice.

Teachers unions hate these school choice efforts because unions aren’t interested in education. After all, no matter what the field, a union’s job isn’t to advocate for a better product. A union’s only goal is to “get” more for the workers they represent. In education, that means that the union is only interested in raiding the public treasury, engorging teacher salaries and pension benefits, and making it nearly impossible to fire failing teachers all quite despite what it might do to the “product” of educating our kids. The simple fact is, unions care about union rules, not kids. This is one of the reasons that even Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt was against public employee unions and why such organizations weren’t even legal until 1959.

Still, charter schools and private schools aren’t the only efforts floating around out there and these efforts are not only supported by conservatives and Republicans. In fact, a bipartisan group called “Illinois Kids Campaign” has several new education bills that they hope to introduce in the coming weeks all aimed at a bipartisan solution to Illinois’ failing education system.

With the theme of “every child deserves a quality education,” the Illinois Kids Campaign is floating the idea of giving tax credits to parents to help them find better schools as well as helping teachers with a tax credit to help them pay for supplies for their classes.

One somewhat controversial idea the coalition has is to attempt to get their policy ideas penciled into the state budget, but the group is also pursuing several stand alone bills to be introduced in the coming months.

Suffice to say that there are a lot of moves and counter moves in education in Illinois and now with a governor who has made school choice a major focus of both his personal life of activism as well as a campaign issue, the time seems just right for a push for school choice in the Land of Lincoln. It is a push that is long over due.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Sayet, he made a huge splash with a speech he gave to the Heritage foundation entitled “How Modern Liberals Think.” The video has garnered nearly 1 million views across the Internet and it turned Sayet into one of the most respected political comedians in the country.

Sayet is hilarious, yes. But, he wants people to understand that his new show is not just for laughs.

“This is more than just a night of ‘yuks,’ Sayet told MRCTV. Rather, it is an important conservative event with important and powerful conservative values espoused through wit and humor.”

“Central Illinois deserves a choice and as a lifelong conservative reformer, I plan to give them one.”

The conservative journalist will compete in a primary election on July 7. The special election will be held Sept. 10.

Flynn’s entrance into the race is a challenge to state Sen. Darin LaHood, the GOP’s favorite to replace Schock in the heavily Republican district. LaHood is the son of former Transportation Secretary and former Illinois Rep. Ray LaHood.

Flynn on Thursday vowed that other candidates for the district’s seat would have their ideas tested.

“The issues we face are far too serious to anoint another party soldier,” he said.

“I’m excited to use my deep knowledge of policy and the media to fight for conservative principles in Washington, not just occupy another seat,” Flynn said.